Now another interesting collaboration has popped up. NASA has signed agreements with GRoK Technologies LLC, a Houston, Texas-based research and development startup, to grow human tissues. (Note: There's a similarly named, but unaffiliated bioinformatics company called GroK Solutions -- beware.)

GroK will seek to develop 3D tissues of various human tissue types such as bone or muscle.
[Image Source: Pearson Education]

NASA is interested in the potential these technologies present for regenerating bone and muscle. During long spaceflights, astronauts are susceptible to developing osteopenia, which is a condition arising from the loss of bone and muscle mass and bone density. The patented technologies could help GRoK develop breakthrough products for the research and medical communities and advance our overall understanding of biomedicine.

Biotechnology research taking place on the International Space Station and at NASA centers around the country continues to push the leading edge of science. This partnership will further enhance NASA's ability to share the unique breakthroughs made in space-based research.

GRoK will work on two projects as part of the deal. The first -- dubbed "BioReplicates" -- represents its first crack at the aforementioned 3D model of various human tissues, particularly those that are damaged during long space flights, such as bone and muscle. A second project, dubbed "Scionic," aims to tap into nerves and the hormonal system to offer pain and inflammation relief without the sometimes-ineffective pharmaceuticals used today.

The Texas startup was cofounded by a Californian lawyer, Moshe J. Kushman, JD, MBA. Mr. Kushman currently serves as the company's CEO. He comments on the new deal:

The GRoK team is delighted we are now a NASA licensee with the opportunity to bring forward into the commercial sector technologies that have the capacity to improve the lives of people everywhere. It's not just science fiction anymore. All indications are that 21st century life sciences will change dramatically during the next several decades, and GRoK is working to define the forefront of a new scientific wave.

The press release from NASA does not mention whether the deal involves any funding. If it does, such contracts are typically small in government terms, constituting at most a couple million dollars. However, partners gain certain other advantages, such as having access to NASA research staff to bounce ideas off of, unpublished NASA research data, and NASA facilities.

NASA's Johnson Space Center is a home for space research and relics alike.

The JSC facility is known as the training site for NASA's astronauts, and is one of ten major NASA facilities nationwide. It is named in honor of the late U.S. president and Texas native, Lyndon B. Johnson.

Money is our overlord. We need to somehow switch to a non-monetary system like in Star Trek. I have no clue how that could ever happen without there being one government and united countries. At the rate we're going, our future is going to be more like the game Eve Online. Basically corporations become countries.

"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer